After a summer of careful progress, Information Services will resume actively tuning the University of Oregon's Duck ID system on Aug. 16.

The Duck ID Account Management website, located at duckid.uoregon.edu, will be unavailable from 6 to 8 p.m. that evening while the vendor installs stability improvements and lays the foundation for the next phase of work.

The Duck ID website is best known as the place where UO students, staff and faculty members change their Duck ID passwords every six months.

During downtime, such password resets aren't possible. However, Duck ID logins to other UO services will continue to function as usual.

The new Duck ID platform, which launched in February, offers expanded self-service options for the UO community, letting people manage role accounts and quickly recover compromised accounts themselves. The system also provides greater security and stability than its predecessor.

August marks the start of a planned phase of post-launch improvements. Several more instances of downtime will be scheduled in the coming months for times that minimize impacts to the UO community.

Notices about each round of maintenance will be posted on the IT Service Status website. That's also where Information Services will post in-the-moment updates if the work runs long or causes unexpected problems.

Information Services has proceeded cautiously since a June 5 update to the Duck ID system that unexpectedly disrupted email flow and IT service access for many members of the UO community.

"We've taken a careful look at how to reduce the likelihood of such problems in the future," said Abhijit Pandit, chief information officer.

Specifically, Information Services has implemented new safeguards in a related system, increased cross-team reviews of proposed changes, and expanded its testing regimen.

"I'm very proud of the project team for charting a path forward so we can continue making important improvements to the usability and accessibility of our new system," Pandit said.

Anyone with questions can submit a ticket through the Duck ID accounts page in the UO Service Portal, or contact the IT staff who support their unit or the Technology Service Desk.